This invention pertains to a drywall-trimming accessory, which is adapted in an intended use to cover a portion of a drywall panel and to have a fastener driven through the drywall-trimming accessory. As improved by this invention, the drywall-trimming accessory has a mosaic of break-away panes.
Commonly, in an installation of two drywall panels mounted to a wooden stud at a vertical corner, a drywall-trimming accessory, which is known as an adapter and which has two flanges and a transitional portion adjoining the flanges at their upper or lower ends, is used to define a transition between a so-called xe2x80x9cbullnosexe2x80x9d corner bead, which has a central portion defining a so-called xe2x80x9cbullnosexe2x80x9d corner (which in current trade parlance is a corner having a nominal radius not less than about 0.350 inch) and which has two flanges, and a nominally square base.
Over the nominally square base, which is defined by the flanges of the adapter, wooden baseboards, crown moldings, or other wooden or polymeric moldings are mounted via nails or other fasteners driven through the moldings, through the flanges of the adapter, through the drywall panels, into the wooden stud. When used with baseboards or floor moldings, the adapter is oriented so that the transitional portion adjoins the flanges at their upper ends. When used with crown moldings, the adapter is inverted so that the transitional portion adjoins the flanges at their lower ends. Being molded from polystyrene, such adapters, as known heretofore, are available commercially from Trim-Tex, Inc. of Lincolnwood, Illinois, and are illustrated in Catalog 2000T of Trim-Tex, Inc., on pages 29 and 31.
Usually, the flanges of the corner bead and the flanges of the adapter are covered by a drywall-finishing material (which installers tend to call xe2x80x9cmudxe2x80x9d) so as to define what is known as a butt seam between the corner bead and the adapter, before the moldings are mounted. Commonly, the covered flanges and the drywall panels, where exposed, are painted before the moldings are mounted.
Undesirably, cracking of the drywall-finishing material, the paint, or both can occur under when fasteners, such as nails, are driven through a drywall-trimming accessory. Whether cracking occurs is believed to depend on such factors as what types of fasteners are used, what manual or powered tools are used to drive the fasteners, what force is used to drive the fasteners, and at what speeds the fasteners are driven.
Herein, a conventional drywall-trimming bead or a so-called xe2x80x9cbullnosexe2x80x9d drywall-trimming bead, as described above, is regarded as a drywall-trimming accessory. Further, an adapter, as described above, is regarded as a drywall-trimming accessory. Commonly, drywall-trimming beads are extruded from polyvinyl chloride and adapters are molded from polystyrene.
Broadly, this invention provides in a drywall-trimming accessory made from a polymeric material, such as polystyrene or polyvinyl chloride, and adapted in an intended use to cover an edge portion of a drywall panel and to have a fastener driven through said accessory, that said accessory has a mosaic of break-away panes. Each pane is adapted to break away from said accessory if said pane is struck by a fastener being driven through said accessory.
This invention may be advantageously embodied in a drywall-trimming accessory made from a polymeric material, such as polystyrene or polyvinyl chloride, wherein said accessory has a flange, which has an outer surface and an inner surface and which is adapted in an intended use to cover an edge portion of a drywall panel with the inner surface near the edge portion of the drywall panel and to have a fastener driven through the flange. As contemplated by this invention, the flange has the mosaic of break-away panes.
The panes are defined by grooves formed in at least one of the inner and outer surfaces, or by apertures extending through the flange and by grooves formed in at least one of the outer and inner surfaces, preferably by two said apertures, which are elongate and which are parallel, and by two said grooves, which are formed in the outer surface and which are parallel. Each pane is adapted to break away from the flange, along at least one of the grooves defining said pane, if said pane is struck by a fastener being driven through the flange.
In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the flange is one of two flanges, which diverge from each other, each flange having such a mosaic of break-away flanges. Although this invention is intended to be advantageously embodied in an adapter, as described above, this invention also can be advantageously embodied in a drywall-trimming accessory of another type, such as a conventional corner bead or an so-called xe2x80x9cbullnosexe2x80x9d corner bead.